ATHENS, Ga. -- He walked into the post-game setup with head down and shoulders slumped, a defeated man if there ever was one.

His mumble was barely audible and his words were short and cutting. Then Les Miles was asked if this -- this up and down, back and forth, I'll see your big play and raise you my big play -- is the new look of a conference that prides itself on lining up and trading blows and he who bleeds most loses.

Welcome to the new SEC, ladies and gentlemen. Georgia's thrilling, nail-biting, gotta-get-a-stop 44-41 victory over LSU has unmistakably underscored the reality of the meatgrinder conference in 2013:

The days of kicking a field goal and winning 6-3 in overtime are over. The days of defense wins championships and it all begins up front on the defensive line and we dare you to run on us have been replaced by he who has the ball last wins.

Alabama 32, Georgia 28 in the 2012 SEC Championship Game.

Georgia 41, South Carolina 30 earlier this month.

Alabama 49, Texas A&M 42 two weeks ago.

Stop me when this sounds familiar. Stop me if you think the SEC, which for years thumped its chest and dared anyone to question its ability to eliminate all hope with suffocating defense, doesn't look more and more like the rest of college football with each passing week.

Points in bunches. Defenses scrambling to make plays and get stops. And worse: coaches and players huddled on the sidelines frantically looking for something to stop the madness -- yet powerless to do so.

The rest of college football didn't have to find a way to catch the SEC after all. The SEC has -- like it or not -- fallen back to them.

"I told our guys before we went out for that last series to forget about what happened the rest of this game," said Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. "All that matters is this series. All that matters is if you get a stop here."

And the Bulldogs, who couldn't stop LSU the previous 57 minutes and change, got a sack on first down and then watched Tigers quarterback Zach Mettenberger misfire on three straight throws to end the game and allow everyone in this red and black cauldron to breathe again.

They jumped and screamed and did victory laps like they just won the conference championship. Stoic Georgia coach Mark Richt raced around the stadium with his hands in the air, and ran behind the Bulldogs' bench to find his wife Katharyn Francis to give her a big we-did-it kiss.

I mean, it was only Georgia's third game this season against a top 10 team. It was only Georgia's third mega matchup this year where if you're not scoring at least 40 points, you're not winning.

Want to know why Georgia lost to ACC rival Clemson in the season opener? The Dawgs couldn't score in the red zone when they had to, had to settle for a field goal and screwed the pooch on the snap and hold to end the drive with no points.

If they're successful in that red zone trip and score, guess how many points they finish with? That's right, 42.

This is your new SEC in big games that matter, everyone. Get used to it.

The stars on the field are the quarterbacks who combined to throw seven touchdown passes; the guys who roomed together four years ago when they arrived in Athens as heralded recruits. Not the Jadeveon Clowneys, Dont'a Hightowers and Nick Fairleys of the world.

The stars are the guys who were separated four years ago not by competition, but by Mettenberger running afoul of the law and getting kicked off the team. That gave Aaron Murray the starting job at Georgia, one that he has turned into a career of big numbers and SEC career records -- but not nearly enough memorable moments.

Until, that is, he got the best of Mettenberger -- the guy Richt admitted in July of 2012 "probably might have" won the starting job four years ago had he not messed up off the field. Murray had to hear that, had to roll into this, his senior season, with a career record of 1-5 vs. top 10 teams and with the reality of what could have been were it not for a tipped ball in the SEC Championship Game loss to Alabama.

You think he cares that LSU was constantly out of position in the secondary, and had several key coverage busts, including on the game-winning 25-yard touchdown pass to Justin Scott-Wesley? You think he cares that LSU cornerback Jalen Mills and linebacker Kwon Alexander blew the man-under coverage that put no one within five yards of Scott-Wesley?

Come on, he was there last December when Chris Conley inexplicably caught that tipped pass and the clock ran out and Georgia couldn't advance to humiliate Notre Dame like Alabama did. In the new SEC, it's just as much about getting a break and capitalizing on another's defensive misfortune as it is seizing the moment and winning the game.

"Those first two games were huge for us," Murray said. "If we hadn't been in those games, and played the way we did, I don't know if we could have taken the mental punches in this game. We were ready for what had to be done."

Maybe that's it. Maybe LSU simply wasn't ready to play a game in the 40s and find a way to get points on the last drive of the game. Maybe the Tigers, the SEC's gold standard on defense with Alabama the last five years, couldn't mentally grasp what the SEC has become.

"If you told me they were going to score 40-something points," said LSU linebacker Lamin Barrow, his voice trailing off ... "Man, I would have said you're crazy."

There was a time, not so long ago, when Mike Bobo's stare into nothing revealed everything. Or so we thought.

Georgia's offensive coordinator had that same look early Saturday night; those same glassy eyes, that same you've got to be kidding me stare. Only there was one key difference between this unusually cool fall night, and last December in the Georgia Dome.

Georgia won.

Minutes earlier, he had stormed into the Bulldogs' locker room and implored players to get back outside and celebrate with a delirious crowd. You don't get these kinds of wins every day in the big, bad SEC.

Or do you?

"It's the world we live in now," Bobo said. "The goal has always been to score one more point than the other guy."